A place to find news updates, legal analysis, and all official documents related to the various constitutional challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010)

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Some good reading while we wait

As we all hold our collective breaths, there are several interesting stories out there to pass the time. Here is a sampling:

* The front page of today's New York Times contains this story detailing the ways in which the Obama administration (and supporters of the ACA more generally) may have not taken the constitutional objections to an individual mandate seriously enough, at least when the the legislation was being crafted.

* In this story, the Times discusses how President Obama is still hoping for the best but planning for one great big giant disappointment.

* Every year, Slate runs a discussion between Walter Dellinger (former Acting Solicitor General, Professor at Duke, and author of the amicus brief for Senator Reid and Leader Pelosi) and Supreme Court correspondent Dahlia Lithwick in the last week of the Court's Term, discussing the opinions. This year they are joined by Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner, perhaps the preeminent judge of his generation. They are, of course, discussing you-know-what. You can find the thread here.

* More here on popular opinion about the ACA generally, and the individual mandate in particular, from Reuters. Our fellow Americans seem to like most of the Act's provisions, but object to the Act as a whole.

* Ezra Klein has this very interesting article in the New Yorker about how the the argument against the mandate's constitutionality gained momentum and, in the words of Jack Balkin, eventually became "on the wall." Ilya Somin responds here.

* And finally, here is another piece from the New Yorker with some relevant odds, including the chances that "Court accidentally orders undocumented immigrants in Arizona to purchase health insurance: 5-1."